Durban – The service delivery pact between the DA and IFP in KwaZulu-Natal is on track, with both parties evaluating the terms of reference before an official signing can take place.
The service delivery pact looks to build on a cooperation agreement the two parties signed last year and will focus on the uMhlathuze Local Municipality, uThukela District Municipality, Amajuba district municipality and the Abaqulusi municipality.
Both parties said the dismal picture painted by Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke in the Consolidated General Report on Local Government Audit Outcomes for the 2021-2022 financial year outlined the need to focus on service delivery.
DA provincial leader Francois Rodgers said the agreement was now with the party’s Federal Executive.
“Both parties have agreed to the terms of reference and the pact allows for a change in dynamics if either party takes on new municipalities after next year’s elections.
“This pact is specific to KZN, but this is also new terrain we are charting in terms of coalitions,” he said.
Rodgers said a form of understanding of coalitions was needed, “with constructive guidelines to build coalitions as opposed to the destructive changes of leadership we are seeing in other provinces”.
IFP provincial chairperson Thami Ntuli said consistency was needed in coalitions to ensure that service delivery was taking place.
“This is a working together arrangement through coalitions. The pact will only be signed once everyone is in complete agreement,” he said.
DA leader John Steenhuisen had said coalition agreements and pacts would see parties sitting around the table to agree on rules of engagement that will enable different organisations to retain their own identities while bringing an end to the petty squabbles and divisions.
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